Posted by Jim DeWitt on October 30, 2009 at 1:11 PM
This is more closely related to birding than to bird photography, but because the line can be blurry - a lot of avid birders, myself included, are also bird photographers - I thought I'd post this.
The late, great Phoebe Snetsinger was one of the greatest birders in the world. At one time, she held the world record for most species seen by an individual. Her journal was published posthumously as Birding on Borrowed Time, and was pretty remarkable. Now there is a biography of Snetsinger out, Life List, by Olivia Gentile. While Gentile's pop psychology is occasionally annoying, there's no question that Snetsinger's obsession with birding left little room in her life for anything else, including her husband, children and non-birding friends.
If wasn't just Snetsinger, either. There's almost a whole sub-genre of books involving obsessive birding. Obmasik's The Big Year;" Koeppel's To See Every Bird; and Kenn Kauffman's remarkable Kingbird Highway. I trust that if I cross that line from serious interest to obsession one of my friends here will take me aside...
Posted by Mia McPherson on October 30, 2009 at 1:52 PM
I would take you aside and talk to you Jim, birding shouldn't become THE most important thing in a person's life especially if they have a family. And since I care for you as a friend I would not want to see you lose your family because of a birding obsession.
I trust you would do the same for me ;-)
Posted by Nick Saunders on October 31, 2009 at 10:10 AM
I own Kingbird Highway and will agree that unless you are single, it can be an obsession.
I have had the best birding year of my life this year in our Province, notching up 245 species seen within Saskatchewan, alone..
Last year I got 232 , and there are still 2 months left in 2009 Luckily my wife is very supportive, and I've learnt to balance birding, photography and marriage !
I think we can be sure that all of those uberbirders got that "talk" on a regular basis. They evidently didn't listen. I suspect the talk would have the same results with you, Jim. Besides, isn't this a bit like going to a bar with all of your friends and then asking them to tell you when you've had enough to drink?
Posted by Richard Ditch on November 1, 2009 at 8:38 PM
I once wrote an article for the New Jersey Audubon magazine titled "How to tell if birding has become an obsession." It was a set of 50 yes/no questions with a scale at the end to determine how far gone you were.
It was tongue-in-cheek, but based completely on things I did or I'd seen other people in NJ do.
I'll have to see if I've still got it on my computer of somewhere.
You're worrying about "BIRDING"????????? being an obsession!!!!!!!!!!.....PHOTOGRAPHY is enough of an obsession to forget you have family and obligations...
My husband says I am "married" to my camera....but we have stayed married for 30 yrs. Don't add too much birding to your time.You need it to be simple. Pick one obsession and give upl the rest or do it in moderation!
Just my opinion.....
Lucy
Posted by Ákos Lumnitzer on November 11, 2009 at 3:24 PM
It would always help to be married to another obsessed bird lover. Which is not the case with me, but still she is rather supportive in many ways, getting cranky at others, but less cranky than not, which I guess is a positive thing.
On the book front, since you mentioned a few I could suggest a really funny, Aussie book. It's called "The big twitch" by a comedy writer Sean Dooley, who pissed up a family inheritance over a one year period (2002 from memory) to go and see as many birds as possible to beat the Aussie record. I was wetting myself at times from the anecdotes and other hilarious events.
Discussion
6 repliesThe late, great Phoebe Snetsinger was one of the greatest birders in the world. At one time, she held the world record for most species seen by an individual. Her journal was published posthumously as Birding on Borrowed Time, and was pretty remarkable. Now there is a biography of Snetsinger out, Life List, by Olivia Gentile. While Gentile's pop psychology is occasionally annoying, there's no question that Snetsinger's obsession with birding left little room in her life for anything else, including her husband, children and non-birding friends.
If wasn't just Snetsinger, either. There's almost a whole sub-genre of books involving obsessive birding. Obmasik's The Big Year;" Koeppel's To See Every Bird; and Kenn Kauffman's remarkable Kingbird Highway. I trust that if I cross that line from serious interest to obsession one of my friends here will take me aside...
I trust you would do the same for me ;-)
I have had the best birding year of my life this year in our Province, notching up 245 species seen within Saskatchewan, alone..
Last year I got 232 , and there are still 2 months left in 2009
Great post Jim
It was tongue-in-cheek, but based completely on things I did or I'd seen other people in NJ do.
I'll have to see if I've still got it on my computer of somewhere.
My husband says I am "married" to my camera....but we have stayed married for 30 yrs. Don't add too much birding to your time.You need it to be simple. Pick one obsession and give upl the rest or do it in moderation!
Just my opinion.....
Lucy
On the book front, since you mentioned a few I could suggest a really funny, Aussie book. It's called "The big twitch" by a comedy writer Sean Dooley, who pissed up a family inheritance over a one year period (2002 from memory) to go and see as many birds as possible to beat the Aussie record. I was wetting myself at times from the anecdotes and other hilarious events.